Firefly
by sinhchan
Summary: Fireflies are hard to find, but when you do, take good care of them. For their flame burns brightly for only short time before they've vanished from your sight, never to be found again. That's what Rika Honda was. A firefly for Team Urameshi.


**Disclaimer: I Do Not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of it's characters. They belong to Yoshihiro Togashi and Shonen Jump. I do own Rika Honda, though.**

**This is my first fanfiction that I'm taking seriously, please be nice. Enjoy.**

* * *

><p>"Rika Honda. 16. Has an incredible sixth sense." A picture of a girl with mint green hair and golden eyes popped up on the monitor as Koenma explained to the four boys standing in front of him the mission at hand.<p>

Yusuke sighed. "So, you want us to save her, or what?"

Koenma nodded. "Yes. She currently resides in a foster house a few blocks from Kurama's school. Her caregivers are…less than desirable, and could care less what happens to her." he told them.

Kuwabara stared blankly. "She's really pretty."

Yusuke whacked him on the head one good time as Kurama accepted the mission. "When should we bring her here?"

"As soon as possible. I prefer you do it at night, however, when everyone is asleep and she has a better sense of who you are."

Hiei raised an eyebrow. "A better sense?"

"Ah, yes. For some reason, her powers seem to work better at night. Along with having a sixth sense, at night she can utilize it fully to determine whether someone is good, evil, human, or demon."

"I wish I could have that power….woulda made my job a helluva lot easier…" Yusuke mused as they exited the toddlers office and made their way to the human plane.

* * *

><p>A small sliver of light shone under the door of a small girls room. It was after hours and she knew that, but she couldn't put the book down. She was risking her neck by even having the book out in the house let alone reading it at night.<p>

Rika finished the last chapter and shut off her lamp just as footsteps sounded in the hall. She listened closely for a second, determining that the footsteps were too heavy to be another child and quickly crawled under her over sized blanket and pretended to be asleep.

The bedroom door opened a crack and shut just as quickly. She breathed a sigh of relief when she knew the person was gone. "Asshole…" she whispered at the retreating footsteps.

The entire day Kyoko, her foster mother, had been on her case about staying up late. Rika knew she meant well by warning her about her husband Takeshi's wrath against rule-breakers, but she couldn't help but hate them both.

Why couldn't Kyoko stand up to her hateful spouse and why couldn't Takeshi loosen up? They were kids in foster care, not adults in the military.

A soft rap on the window knocked Rika out of her reverie. She turned around slowly to see large green orbs staring at her. Biting back a scream, she held the blanket up to her nose and discreetly stared back.

The green eyes suddenly took on a look of concern as a hand motioned for her to open the window.

Rika got a strange feeling in her gut that she had to, no, needed to open the window and let this person in. Like her whole existence depended on it.

She hopped out of her bed and quietly tip-toed to the window and slid it up. "Who are you?" she whispered to the mysterious person.

They smiled and climbed into her room, followed by two others.

"I'm Kurama. This is Yusuke and Hiei. We're here to help you." he recited dutifully.

Rika felt a sense of warmth run through her body. "You're the good guys." she stated matter-of-factly. "Sent here to save me from the wretched hands of my wicked step-mother."

Yusuke looked at her. "You like fairy tales, don't you?"

"Absolutely. They're my favorite. Why? You've read that one?"

"Nah, it just sounded like something out of a princess story."

Kurama chuckled as Hiei handed him a small duffel bag.

* * *

><p>Rika sat calmly as they rode 'Yusuke's overgrown chicken' as Hiei liked to call Puu, up to Genkai's old estate.<p>

"So, when did you figure out you were special?" Yusuke called over his shoulder to her.

"Oh, only about a year ago. I mean, I've always been able to see the dead and all that jazz, but it wasn't until the demon plane opened up that I started developing something extra."

"What is it exactly that you can do? All Binky Breathe said was that you can tell when someone's evil or not."

"It's a little more than that. I can sense when someone is evil, good, human, demon or spirit. Also, I can sense your intentions. Like when you guys were in my room. I could tell that you weren't going to hurt me, that's why I'm here right now instead of cowering in my closet." She smiled.

Yusuke stared at her. "So…what if we were lying? What if we were hiding our true intentions under that good guy disguise?"

"I can also tell when you're hiding them. But for some reason that only happens at night."

Kurama spoke up. "I was also curious about that. Has it ever happened in the daytime? Or is it strictly a nocturnal power?"

Rika rested her elbows on her knees and her chin on her hand. "Well, so far, it only happens at night. Like, the other night I was seeing how far I could stretch it when I felt my someone's desire to kill one of the younger kids. It turns out it was my foster father, Takeshi, and the kid was Harumi. Those two never got along." she explained thoughtfully.

Yusuke's brow furrowed. "What happened?"

"Oh, nothing bad. I figured he wouldn't kill her if someone else was in the room. So, I stayed in there for the night until he went to sleep."

"Did he ever try it again?"

"Nah, I don't think he was serious about it. He just wanted to. That's another thing. I can tell how strong the desire is. Like, he wasn't going go through with it. But he would've if she kept crying like she was. He has no soul, I swear." she answered off-handedly.

"We're here." Kurama announced.

Rika looked over Puu's wing. "Wow. Is that where we'll be staying?"

"Yep. Casa de Team Urameshi." Yusuke answered proudly.

"Wait…you're _the_ Yusuke Urameshi? The boy who came back from the dead and practically saved the world?"

Yusuke's grin widened. "That's me. I thought you knew you were with royalty."

Hiei scoffed. "You're far from royalty, Yusuke."

Yusuke stuck his tongue out at Hiei which started a small fight between the two.

Rika looked to Kurama who just smiled. "They'll be fine."

Before they could land, Hiei and Yusuke jumped and ran off into the surrounding woods to finish the fight.

Rika gazed adoringly at the house. "Wow. This place is really nice. Does everyone live here?"

"Well, almost everyone. Yusuke and Keiko come down for holidays because of her school work, and Kuwabara stays for weekends along with his sister and Yukina." Kurama explained as they approached the front door.

"What about you? Where do you live?"

"I live here most of the time, when I'm not at school." He opened the door for her to go through first and then followed.

"It's even bigger on the inside!" she exclaimed happily.

"That's what he said!" Came a shout, and out popped Kuwabara from a side-door.

Kurama shot him a look. "This is our _guest." _

Kuwabara laughed dumbly. "Oh, sorry! You must be Rika! I'm Kazuma Kuwabara! Badass Extraordinaire and Master of the Sword!" As soon as he finished speaking a shoe hit him in the back of the head.

Yusuke, roughened up and bruised, stood in back door with a shoeless foot in the air. "Second Badass Extraordinaire and Hiei's the master. I thought he proved that to you last week."

"He only won cause I was tired!" Kuwabara challenged.

"Feh. You're always tired. I blame your human educational style." Hiei walked in, hands in his pockets and fresh cuts from his scuffle with Yusuke.

Kurama sighed. "Can we please pay attention to the matter at hand?"

The three boys turned to face him.

"Thank you. Kuwabara, this is Rika Honda. Your new apprentice."

"My new what?"


End file.
